[HOW TO] Swap the microphone from left to right - Page 2

richierich · 24th July 2006, 15:45

Anyone from Honda CS reading this? Its time for me to remind you about my request for this addressing. Tin Hats!

steveking1000 · 26th July 2006, 09:22

had a long motorway day yesterday, spoke to loads of people, everyone said the reception was loud and clear so that's really good.

One other quick point, while I had the plastic off, I drilled out the "blue LED" hole/slot a little bit, definately a bit brighter. worth doing if you find the light too dim to be of any use.

steveking1000 · 26th July 2006, 09:37

had a long motorway day yesterday, spoke to loads of people, everyone said the reception was loud and clear so that's really good.

One other quick point, while I had the plastic off, I drilled out the "blue LED" hole/slot a little bit, definately a bit brighter. worth doing if you find the light too dim to be of any use.

CivPilot · 31st July 2006, 06:54

Ok, did this yesterday and discovered something interesting.

Inside the grey square you move the mircophone itself is directional. Ie, when its mounted on the passenger side it appears to angled slightly towards the drivers side. I swapped mine over as the instructions here say and called a mate both while parked (engine and climate on) and whilst driving. Whilst parked he told me that it was slightly clearer than before. Whilst driving he claimed it was no better than before with lots of background noise.

I popped the cover off and turned the mircophone itself round so the wires were coming out of the right hand side as you look at it (How it looks in Pottsy's first picture) but still mounted on the drivers side of the roof. Tried again with calling my mate (stationary & driving)

Whilst stationary he told me "To get a better idea you really should start the engine though" (at the time the engine was running and climate was on a mission to get the temperature "low").
Whilst driving he said "I can't tell, are you moving yet?" (I was doing 50mph down a dual carraigeway at the time).

Now both times he could tell I was on the car phone as my voice sounded "away from the mike". But once I had spun the microphone round he said there was very little (if any) background noise and my voice was "crystal clear".

So those people who cant tell the difference should try this. Follow Pottsy's brilliant instructions, but when remounting the microphone make sure it is the same way round (wires coming out from the right hand side as you look at it). Doing this one thing different** made the world of difference to mine.

**The only other thing I did different was to attach the microphone to the cover itself so there is no gap between the newly drilled holes and the mic foam cover. With the mic the way round it is you need to move the green plug slightly over to the drivers side so there is plenty of wire to be able to do this. So maybe this helps also?

Pottsy · 31st July 2006, 14:39

CivPilot - thanks for that, I'll give it a go.

Hartside · 31st July 2006, 17:57

Good one Civpilot. So just to clarify (excuse me I'm a bit slow today!), you dont turn the green connector around like Pottsy did, you just slide it more to the drivers side to give sufficient wire to be able to connect the mic. The wire from the mic comes out pointing again toward the drivers side of the car as it was before the mod ?

CivPilot · 31st July 2006, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hartside

Good one Civpilot. So just to clarify (excuse me I'm a bit slow today!), you dont turn the green connector around like Pottsy did, you just slide it more to the drivers side to give sufficient wire to be able to connect the mic. The wire from the mic comes out pointing again toward the drivers side of the car as it was before the mod ?

You still turn the green bit round, but mount it nearer to your side of the car to give enough cable. And yes, the wire coming out of the mike itself still exiting on the drivers side as before.

Called someone today on the Motorway at 70+mph

and they knew I was on the car phone, could hear a bit of road noise but were totally shocked I was on the motorway at that speed ( they thought I was in stop start traffic or stopped). Best bit was that I didnt even have to shout, just spoke to them in a normal un-raised (honestly) voice and they could here me clear as day.

Hat's off to Pottsy for this one, best mod I've done.

Pottsy · 31st July 2006, 19:31

CivPilot - I've edited the instructions to include the "CivPilot mod".

Maldax · 1st August 2006, 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by CivPilot

Inside the grey square you move the mircophone itself is directional. Ie, when its mounted on the passenger side it appears to angled slightly towards the

You don't think this was an attempt at a fix?

Pottsy · 2nd August 2006, 15:12

The posts about Honda customer service have been moved to here:
http://www.civinfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=589

Ancient Nerd · 2nd August 2006, 16:03

Agreed. I'm quite happy for my previous posts to be removed.

However, the one thing that worries me in all this is that it really shouldn't be necessary to move the microphone. Amongst other things, what happens if you have a failure in the HFT. The likely scenario is that you take it in to your local dealer, who quite correctly says this is not a standard system, we cannot fix it.

WoolyCiv · 4th August 2006, 22:13

I think that I may have uncovered the real problem with the positioning of the HFT microphone. I decided to implement Pottsy's & CivPilot's mod, on removing the Light/Microphone unit from the headlining

I noticed a 'silver' glimmer from beneath the fabric covering of the microphone unit and decided to remove the covering to see what was beneath it.

As you can see from the photo, the mic is facing the driver so as CivPilot correctly pointed out with his 'method' the mic will be about 4 cm closer to and facing the driver. However I don't think that moving the microphone unit from the passenger side to the drivers side is really important. What is important is the positioning of the mic in relation to the holes in the cover. With the 'Pottsy/CivPilot' mod, I believe that in repositioning and drilling the extra holes they have positioned the mic better in relation to the new holes than it was previously. See the photo below for the relative positioning of the mic to the holes.

I am going to try drilling an extra set of holes to the right of the exsting ones and see if this gives an improvement in the HFT performance without invalidating any warranty.

CivPilot · 5th August 2006, 10:33

But the cup in front of the front mic face is a directional aid. Sound entering that cup will reflect back into the mic. Hence although the mic faces the driver, the cup reflecting the sound is picking up abient noise from the roof space and the passenger. It was people commenting that they could hear the passenger more than me that made me look into this, I too removed the foam to see the mic in its mount and figured out the sound reflection situation.

I still believe (neah its been proved to me by testing various positions directions) that turning the mic round so the mic faces away from the driver, and lowering the mic so it actually rests on the to the drilled holes improves sound amazingly well. The proof is that I followed Pottsy's mod and made a few calls moving things around between them. Heres the full story as it happened:-

I followed Pottsy's mod but kept the new holes/mic position in line with the existing (so when looking at my roof panel the holes are perfectly mirrored in their locations left to right) made a call to a mate on a section of dual carrigeway at between 40 & 50mph, the sound was improved slightly but my voice was still lost in the background noise we are used to.

I followed an extra idea of mine which involved turning the mic round (so the face points away from the driver), called the same mate who was waiting for "test call 2" & sound improved instantly, but still loads of background.

I then lowered the mic to the newly drilled holes (as per pottsy's mod, but mine are drilled in line with the original ones keeping a nice air of symetry) and made "test call 3". As posted previously his first answer to me was "I can't tell, are you moving yet?" (I was doing 50mph down the dual carraigeway at the time).

Why not try turning the mic around and lowering to the grill before drilling holes where there should be none.

Drill holes in the panel to the right of the ones there and in my opinion you've ruined your roof panel instantly as the new holes will look very out of place and "home made" and can't be put back to standard? (I've photoshopped your idea and it looks VERY bad indeed, I would rather put up with ***** mic performance if that was the only way of improving sound, it is totaly horrid looking). Putting the holes in depressions where they should already as Pottsy has recomended looks "standard".

WoolyCiv · 5th August 2006, 20:18

CivPilot - Thanks for the response, you have saved me from making a mess of the looks of the lighting/mic unit. Having read through your reply I have decided to try a slightly different approach. Instead of relocating the mic to the right hand side, I have just turned it through 180 degrees so that the cable exits on the left instead of the right. To enable this I had to remove a small bit of plastic from the mic holder to allow it to seat properly and as the mic is still held firmly in the original mounting I added an oblong shaped piece of foam with center removed as a filler/packer between the cover and mic unit. I have attached the foam with double sided tape to the cover.

I have done it this way as I wanted the unit to remain as standard as possible and I cannot believe that moving the mic from the laft to the right hand side (about 4 inches ot 100mm) will make much difference after all you can get this sort of distance by moving either your haed or youe seat. I may be proved wrong in this assumption, and probably will be.

I will report back after I have had a chance to test this setup.

Deemon · 10th August 2006, 09:26

I thought, after reading all you replies, that I would try a Super Quick Fix option to see If it makes any difference. This fix consists of -

1. Remove cover.
2. Remove Mic from holder.
3. Insert small piece of foam (or tissue paper) about 5mm thick into Mic housing.
4. Stick a piece of double sided tape to back of mic.
5. Push mic back in to housing so it sticks to the foam.
6. Replace cover.........Sorted.

So basically all I have done is lowered the mic by about 5mm so it is touching the plastic cover, and the difference is night and day.
** I moved the mic phone calls on the motorway were a waste of time and effort as no one could make out what I was saying, but now it's very clear and I can make calls at 60/70 mph without any problems. Even the voice activation thing works now at those speeds.........well chuffed.

WoolyCiv · 10th August 2006, 17:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deemon

I thought, after reading all you replies, that I would try a Super Quick Fix option to see If it makes any difference. This fix consists of -

1. Remove cover.
2. Remove Mic from holder.
3. Insert small piece of foam (or tissue paper) about 5mm thick into Mic housing.
4. Stick a piece of double sided tape to back of mic.
5. Push mic back in to housing so it sticks to the foam.
6. Replace cover.........Sorted.

So basically all I have done is lowered the mic by about 5mm so it is touching the plastic cover, and the difference is night and day.
** I moved the mic phone calls on the motorway were a waste of time and effort as no one could make out what I was saying, but now it's very clear and I can make calls at 60/70 mph without any problems. Even the voice activation thing works now at those speeds.........well chuffed.

Very similar to my owm 'fix' and I agree there is a definate improvement, not only to the HFT but to voice commands also.

Ancient Nerd · 18th August 2006, 17:31

Basically the same as Deemon's

I just unclipped the mic from the holder.
Then leaving it loose in the holder, just put the cover back on.

It needed a little persuasion with a thin rod (screwdriver or similar) to keep it aligned with the slot, but still plenty of change from 5 minutes to do it

The sound is much clearer at the other end without any need to shout, no rattles, and nothing to give Honda an excuse for not honouring the warranty (just reclip it in place when the Honda fix is available).

I haven't tried it at speed yet, but it can't be worse than before.

BTW what's the betting that Honda's eventual fix involves 5mm double sided sticky foam tape.

Hartside · 19th August 2006, 17:07

Just done mine. Popped a 5mm piece of foam behind the mic, without using the double sided tape. Phoned the wife at 70mph and she could hear me no problem. Tried setting the satnav at the same speed and again all the commands were recognised with no errors. Well chuffed

richierich · 19th August 2006, 17:24

Am I right in saying that the only difference this makes is the mic is pressed up against the perforated panel? I wonder if the noise is caused by the mic being in a hole, like holding a shell to your ear, or a glass, only more expensive and worse sounding. Might have a go at that, got some of those felt pads for putting under furniture on wooden floors. Does the mic just pop out?

Hartside · 19th August 2006, 17:38

Yes, you're right richierich. The beauty of a piece of foam though is that it's compressable, I don't know about a felt pad. The mic just pulls out it's housing, with very little pressure.

18th August 2006, 17:31	#37 (permalink)
Ancient Nerd Triangular Exhaust Join Date: 5th May 2006 Location: Norfolk Posts: 347 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Even Quicker Fix Basically the same as Deemon's I just unclipped the mic from the holder. Then leaving it loose in the holder, just put the cover back on. It needed a little persuasion with a thin rod (screwdriver or similar) to keep it aligned with the slot, but still plenty of change from 5 minutes to do it The sound is much clearer at the other end without any need to shout, no rattles, and nothing to give Honda an excuse for not honouring the warranty (just reclip it in place when the Honda fix is available). I haven't tried it at speed yet, but it can't be worse than before. BTW what's the betting that Honda's eventual fix involves 5mm double sided sticky foam tape.

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This thread is about: [HOW TO] Swap the microphone from left to right, it's in How To at the Honda Civic forum Civinfo; Anyone from Honda CS reading this? Its time for me to remind you about my request for this addressing. Tin Hats!...

24th July 2006, 15:45	#21 (permalink)
richierich Smell My Cheese! Rocketship door handle Join Date: 17th May 2006 Location: Bicester, Oxfordshire Posts: 1,847 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post iTrader: (0)	Anyone from Honda CS reading this? Its time for me to remind you about my request for this addressing. Tin Hats!

26th July 2006, 09:22	#22 (permalink)
steveking1000 Wheelnut Join Date: 9th June 2006 Location: Somerset, UK Posts: 75 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	had a long motorway day yesterday, spoke to loads of people, everyone said the reception was loud and clear so that's really good. One other quick point, while I had the plastic off, I drilled out the "blue LED" hole/slot a little bit, definately a bit brighter. worth doing if you find the light too dim to be of any use.

26th July 2006, 09:37	#23 (permalink)
steveking1000 Wheelnut Join Date: 9th June 2006 Location: Somerset, UK Posts: 75 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	had a long motorway day yesterday, spoke to loads of people, everyone said the reception was loud and clear so that's really good. One other quick point, while I had the plastic off, I drilled out the "blue LED" hole/slot a little bit, definately a bit brighter. worth doing if you find the light too dim to be of any use.

31st July 2006, 06:54	#24 (permalink)
CivPilot 您看了 Triangular Exhaust Join Date: 1st May 2006 Location: Surrey/Hants Posts: 447 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Ok, did this yesterday and discovered something interesting. Inside the grey square you move the mircophone itself is directional. Ie, when its mounted on the passenger side it appears to angled slightly towards the drivers side. I swapped mine over as the instructions here say and called a mate both while parked (engine and climate on) and whilst driving. Whilst parked he told me that it was slightly clearer than before. Whilst driving he claimed it was no better than before with lots of background noise. I popped the cover off and turned the mircophone itself round so the wires were coming out of the right hand side as you look at it (How it looks in Pottsy's first picture) but still mounted on the drivers side of the roof. Tried again with calling my mate (stationary & driving) Whilst stationary he told me "To get a better idea you really should start the engine though" (at the time the engine was running and climate was on a mission to get the temperature "low"). Whilst driving he said "I can't tell, are you moving yet?" (I was doing 50mph down a dual carraigeway at the time). Now both times he could tell I was on the car phone as my voice sounded "away from the mike". But once I had spun the microphone round he said there was very little (if any) background noise and my voice was "crystal clear". So those people who cant tell the difference should try this. Follow Pottsy's brilliant instructions, but when remounting the microphone make sure it is the same way round (wires coming out from the right hand side as you look at it). Doing this one thing different made the world of difference to mine. The only other thing I did different was to attach the microphone to the cover itself so there is no gap between the newly drilled holes and the mic foam cover. With the mic the way round it is you need to move the green plug slightly over to the drivers side so there is plenty of wire to be able to do this. So maybe this helps also?

31st July 2006, 14:39	#25 (permalink)
Pottsy Administrator Civinfo master Join Date: 10th April 2006 Location: Leics Posts: 5,943 Thanks: 26 Thanked 243 Times in 130 Posts iTrader: (0)	CivPilot - thanks for that, I'll give it a go.

31st July 2006, 17:57	#26 (permalink)
Hartside Supporter Magic Rear Seat Join Date: 4th May 2006 Location: Northumberland Posts: 562 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Good one Civpilot. So just to clarify (excuse me I'm a bit slow today!), you dont turn the green connector around like Pottsy did, you just slide it more to the drivers side to give sufficient wire to be able to connect the mic. The wire from the mic comes out pointing again toward the drivers side of the car as it was before the mod ?

31st July 2006, 19:31	#28 (permalink)
Pottsy Administrator Civinfo master Join Date: 10th April 2006 Location: Leics Posts: 5,943 Thanks: 26 Thanked 243 Times in 130 Posts iTrader: (0)	CivPilot - I've edited the instructions to include the "CivPilot mod".

2nd August 2006, 15:12	#30 (permalink)
Pottsy Administrator Civinfo master Join Date: 10th April 2006 Location: Leics Posts: 5,943 Thanks: 26 Thanked 243 Times in 130 Posts iTrader: (0)	The posts about Honda customer service have been moved to here: http://www.civinfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=589

2nd August 2006, 16:03	#31 (permalink)
Ancient Nerd Triangular Exhaust Join Date: 5th May 2006 Location: Norfolk Posts: 347 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Agreed. I'm quite happy for my previous posts to be removed. However, the one thing that worries me in all this is that it really shouldn't be necessary to move the microphone. Amongst other things, what happens if you have a failure in the HFT. The likely scenario is that you take it in to your local dealer, who quite correctly says this is not a standard system, we cannot fix it.

4th August 2006, 22:13	#32 (permalink)
WoolyCiv 12th June 2006 1.8EX Rocketship door handle Join Date: 28th May 2006 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1,118 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	I think that I may have uncovered the real problem with the positioning of the HFT microphone. I decided to implement Pottsy's & CivPilot's mod, on removing the Light/Microphone unit from the headlining I noticed a 'silver' glimmer from beneath the fabric covering of the microphone unit and decided to remove the covering to see what was beneath it. As you can see from the photo, the mic is facing the driver so as CivPilot correctly pointed out with his 'method' the mic will be about 4 cm closer to and facing the driver. However I don't think that moving the microphone unit from the passenger side to the drivers side is really important. What is important is the positioning of the mic in relation to the holes in the cover. With the 'Pottsy/CivPilot' mod, I believe that in repositioning and drilling the extra holes they have positioned the mic better in relation to the new holes than it was previously. See the photo below for the relative positioning of the mic to the holes. I am going to try drilling an extra set of holes to the right of the exsting ones and see if this gives an improvement in the HFT performance without invalidating any warranty.

5th August 2006, 10:33	#33 (permalink)
CivPilot 您看了 Triangular Exhaust Join Date: 1st May 2006 Location: Surrey/Hants Posts: 447 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	But the cup in front of the front mic face is a directional aid. Sound entering that cup will reflect back into the mic. Hence although the mic faces the driver, the cup reflecting the sound is picking up abient noise from the roof space and the passenger. It was people commenting that they could hear the passenger more than me that made me look into this, I too removed the foam to see the mic in its mount and figured out the sound reflection situation. I still believe (neah its been proved to me by testing various positions directions) that turning the mic round so the mic faces away from the driver, and lowering the mic so it actually rests on the to the drilled holes improves sound amazingly well. The proof is that I followed Pottsy's mod and made a few calls moving things around between them. Heres the full story as it happened:- I followed Pottsy's mod but kept the new holes/mic position in line with the existing (so when looking at my roof panel the holes are perfectly mirrored in their locations left to right) made a call to a mate on a section of dual carrigeway at between 40 & 50mph, the sound was improved slightly but my voice was still lost in the background noise we are used to. I followed an extra idea of mine which involved turning the mic round (so the face points away from the driver), called the same mate who was waiting for "test call 2" & sound improved instantly, but still loads of background. I then lowered the mic to the newly drilled holes (as per pottsy's mod, but mine are drilled in line with the original ones keeping a nice air of symetry) and made "test call 3". As posted previously his first answer to me was "I can't tell, are you moving yet?" (I was doing 50mph down the dual carraigeway at the time). Why not try turning the mic around and lowering to the grill before drilling holes where there should be none. Drill holes in the panel to the right of the ones there and in my opinion you've ruined your roof panel instantly as the new holes will look very out of place and "home made" and can't be put back to standard? (I've photoshopped your idea and it looks VERY bad indeed, I would rather put up with ***** mic performance if that was the only way of improving sound, it is totaly horrid looking). Putting the holes in depressions where they should already as Pottsy has recomended looks "standard".

5th August 2006, 20:18	#34 (permalink)
WoolyCiv 12th June 2006 1.8EX Rocketship door handle Join Date: 28th May 2006 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1,118 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	CivPilot - Thanks for the response, you have saved me from making a mess of the looks of the lighting/mic unit. Having read through your reply I have decided to try a slightly different approach. Instead of relocating the mic to the right hand side, I have just turned it through 180 degrees so that the cable exits on the left instead of the right. To enable this I had to remove a small bit of plastic from the mic holder to allow it to seat properly and as the mic is still held firmly in the original mounting I added an oblong shaped piece of foam with center removed as a filler/packer between the cover and mic unit. I have attached the foam with double sided tape to the cover. I have done it this way as I wanted the unit to remain as standard as possible and I cannot believe that moving the mic from the laft to the right hand side (about 4 inches ot 100mm) will make much difference after all you can get this sort of distance by moving either your haed or youe seat. I may be proved wrong in this assumption, and probably will be. I will report back after I have had a chance to test this setup.

10th August 2006, 09:26	#35 (permalink)
Deemon Valve Cap Join Date: 27th June 2006 Location: Scotland Posts: 43 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	I thought, after reading all you replies, that I would try a Super Quick Fix option to see If it makes any difference. This fix consists of - 1. Remove cover. 2. Remove Mic from holder. 3. Insert small piece of foam (or tissue paper) about 5mm thick into Mic housing. 4. Stick a piece of double sided tape to back of mic. 5. Push mic back in to housing so it sticks to the foam. 6. Replace cover.........Sorted. So basically all I have done is lowered the mic by about 5mm so it is touching the plastic cover, and the difference is night and day. ** I moved the mic phone calls on the motorway were a waste of time and effort as no one could make out what I was saying, but now it's very clear and I can make calls at 60/70 mph without any problems. Even the voice activation thing works now at those speeds.........well chuffed.

19th August 2006, 17:07	#38 (permalink)
Hartside Supporter Magic Rear Seat Join Date: 4th May 2006 Location: Northumberland Posts: 562 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Just done mine. Popped a 5mm piece of foam behind the mic, without using the double sided tape. Phoned the wife at 70mph and she could hear me no problem. Tried setting the satnav at the same speed and again all the commands were recognised with no errors. Well chuffed

19th August 2006, 17:24	#39 (permalink)
richierich Smell My Cheese! Rocketship door handle Join Date: 17th May 2006 Location: Bicester, Oxfordshire Posts: 1,847 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post iTrader: (0)	Am I right in saying that the only difference this makes is the mic is pressed up against the perforated panel? I wonder if the noise is caused by the mic being in a hole, like holding a shell to your ear, or a glass, only more expensive and worse sounding. Might have a go at that, got some of those felt pads for putting under furniture on wooden floors. Does the mic just pop out?

19th August 2006, 17:38	#40 (permalink)
Hartside Supporter Magic Rear Seat Join Date: 4th May 2006 Location: Northumberland Posts: 562 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Yes, you're right richierich. The beauty of a piece of foam though is that it's compressable, I don't know about a felt pad. The mic just pulls out it's housing, with very little pressure.